If anyone personified a rock star that falls from grace at the speed of light (1977-79) then look no further than the punk star Sid Vicious. He embodied everything a true rebel rock star should be. Tragic yes but the myth is enormous. David Bowie even based a whole album around a mythic fallen rock star, but Sid trully did live this doomed tale.
But forget about his untimly death and focus on what he brought to the table - excitment. With Sid you never knew what to expect, he was an agent provocataur and Mclaren saw this in him. He was a PR man's wet dream, he created sensationalism everywhere he went. And nowhere did he shine more brightly then when he was onstage. Underground filmmaker Fabrizio Federico who made a movie about Sid even said ''who cares that he wasnt the best bass player, punk wasnt about that, it was about chaos and showing the audience that anyone could do it, only difference was that Sid was born to be an icon, he was as good looking as James Dean, and the audience felt this too. They would push to be closer to Sid even though he wasnt the frontman, which is very rare, the only other person I can think had this effect was Ritchie James from the Manic Street Preachers. Sid would spit, jump, hit people with his bass, slash his chest, drip blood, verbally abuse the audience, and hit his bass strings with a fish. But most importantly he would connect with people.''
Early in the Pistols career Sid was quite tame onstage but he really came into his own skin during the Sex Pistols deranged 1978 USA tour of the South. During that tour Johnny Rotten had to work extra hard in order not to be overshadowed by Sid onstage. With ''I Need A Fix'' carved into his chest Sid really gave the Yanks a show with his outlaw antics. ''We're the best band in the fucking world!!!!'' he screams in Dallas, bonding with the punk groupies in the front, kissing them, taking drags off their smokes, and getting headbutted in the nose, creating a gurgling bloody mess, which created all those iconic photos of him covered in fresh blood. He was the personification of punk and while the audience celebrated him, Johnny Rotten envied his natural charisma. Sid made picking fights fun and ironic, ''Hey who just hit me in the head, it didnt hurt a bit so tough shit!.''
The Dallas gig was a blood bath and Sid played the audience like the devil would a fiddle, he looked great and created anarchy which was his real job, he was the enfant terrible who took the audience higher, ''this ones called Belsen! 1-2-3-4!!", even when he walks out during the encore for No Fun he flicks them the V sign, he simply loved not giving a fuck. At the end of the gig he almost comes to blows with his road manager Noel Monk because he wont let him bring his new groupie friends backstage, as the audience shouts at Noel ''leave him alone you bastard!".
After the gig a fan was wearing a leather bracelet, hand-crafted by a friend. Vicious told him he wanted it — and demanded he give it to him. “I said, ‘I’ll trade you for yours.’ He had a dog collar on,” Kooda says. “He said, ‘I stole it from a dog. Ya can’t get much lower than that, can ya!’ I said, ‘Well, was the dog pregnant?’ For some reason, that set him off. So, he starts throwing punches at my face. I said, ‘Dude, this is Texas, you can die from screwin’ with people down here.’ ”
Then theres the gig at Randys Rodeo that has become one of the most legendary and dangerous punk gigs ever. As the band board the stage to the sounds of reggae coming out the PA system and crash into God Save The Queen you can feel it in the bootleg recording that theres serious tension in the air. In the film D.O.A you can see Sid losing his mind and pulling serial killer faces and shaking his head in spasms. He announces ''I want some pussy tonight'' as the audience screams, even goading the angry mob with ''you missed again you sucker!". As the rest of the band is audibly nervous this only makes Sid live up to his debauched reputation even more, ripping off his leather jacket and spitting at the photographers.
THE PUNK ROCK VERSION OF JAMES DEAN, VICIOUS SOLIDIFIED HIS FAME BY DYING YOUNG (AT AGE TWENTY-ONE), LEAVING BEHIND MEMORIES OF HIS NOTORIOUS BEHAVIOR AND THE MYSTERY OF GIRLFRIEND NANCY SPUNGEN’S MURDER. ALTHOUGH HE CONTRIBUTED LITTLE TO PUNK MUSIC, VICIOUS REMAINS ITS MOST FAMOUS NAME, AND HIS CULT HAS ONLY GROWN THANKS TO T-SHIRTS AND POSTERS BEARING HIS LIKENESS AND SLOGANS LIKE “DON’T LET THEM TAKE YOU ALIVE” AND “DRUGS KILL”, AND ESPECIALLY THE ICONOGRAPHIC 1986
With 300 Mexicans throwing full beer cans, plus a guy pulling a knife out on Sid, which is when he crashes his white Fender bass down into the audience coming close to killing someone, ''oh look Sid's guitar fell off''. Sid was so out of control during that gig, but he did warn them ''we dont want your free gifts you assholes!", he definitely yells at the audience more then Rotten, ''you can throw every fucking thing you've got we dont give a shit!". Even while getting pelted in the face he takes it like a champ ''hey the one who hit me with the beer can it hurt, but I dont care''. As the stage gets filled with pigs faces, cheeseburgers and God knows what Sid sneers his way through a shootout which the gig has now has become, "you cowboys are all faggots!" as he famously said.
While Rotten was busy being a prima donna Sid even took up most of the bulk of the bands press interviews, appearing on the news talking about his childhood ''when I was 12 I was just a kid, when I was 13 to 15 I was a skin head, from 15 to 20 I've been a punk ''. Even during the bands only live radio interview on KSAN its Sid who provides the anarchy, ''Im illiterate I dont know what you're talking about'', telling the radio host ''I could go right in your mouth'', when the road crew yell them to keep doing the interview he says ''no one forces us into anything, we dont take orders'', putting on a funny rasta accent ''ask me a question I tell you no lie!! Everything you go twin twin/ shut your blood clot mami I cut you to ras''. He even gets philosophical ''rules are meant to be broken right, when there are no more rules and categorisations, when there are no niggars or whites, when theres no more punks, when theres no more dirt, when theres just people, thats is when things are gonna be ok''. Theres a moment when he prophecises his own death ''we'll probably be dead in two years me and him''. New songs are even discussed '' yes we've got one about South Africa about how the blacks are repressed so bad there, and like, thats not on and they're gonna rise up and they're gonna kill those people'' and ''we got one about God and its a real attack, and its played to the death march''. His own creed ''I dont think I just DO!". His dating life ''lets talk about sex I like American girls, Im talking about shoving it in!", then cutting off the DJ with a littany of ''blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, yap yap tap, belly ache belly ache....'' the interview ends with Sid asking to make a dedication to Dee Dee Ramone and then being surprised that Iggy Pop is still alive.
By the time the band arrived at Winterland in San Francisco it was like beating a dead horse, they had all fallen out exceot for Steve & Paul, the last gig was a shambles but Sid still gave it his all and you can actually hear him play bass and he sounds pretty good considering hes goose marching and pogoing all over the stage while the rest of the band looks miserable. But in the end as Freddie said ''nothing really matters'' the band went up in a blaze of glory, and getting maximum publicity, even being crowned Young Business Men Of The Year, and a large part of it was thanks to Sid's incredible gift of publicity, it came so naturally to him, he played the press like a maestro and took every opportunity to further stoke the gasoline fires that burned in his heart.
